This dense and intellectually stimulating tome is a pleasure to read and reflect upon. Opening with a quote from T. J. Clark about Giotto’s storytelling, Prof. Whittington briefly outlines how Giotto’s fame in narrative painting shaped scholarship and may have influenced artists well into the Quattrocento. He provocatively muses whether the survival of Giotto’s non-narrative works might have drawn more scholarly attention to allegorical or diagrammatic modes of painting. Each of the nine chapters, along with the introduction and conclusion, challenges the reader to reconsider assumptions, question overlooked elements, and engage with new interpretations.
The book’s central focus is on modes of representation, investigating how artists communicated information and what strategies they employed to engage audiences. As Whittington states in the introduction, his approach is “focused less on style and more on issues of visual rhetoric, communication, reception, and the variety of pictorial modes deployed by painters to engage their audiences” (2). He examines diagrammatic painting, a mode of representation that organizes complex theological, scientific, devotional, and political content in fundamentally geometric and schematic ways. These paintings are particularly compelling when viewed in their original monumental contexts, as Whittington demonstrates through a wide range of examples, from lesser-known to canonical works and whole decorative programs. His premise is that analyzing diagrammatic painting fundamentally shifts our understanding of Trecento aesthetics and visual strategies. Indeed, he often presents familiar works in ways that make them seem newly discovered.
The book is divided into three sections. Part I, “Reassessing Surface, Space, and Body in Trecento Painting,” consists of two chapters that explore pictorial surfaces and spatial representation. Chapter 1, “Undulating Surfaces in Santa Croce: Taddeo Gaddi’s Refectory,” moves beyond traditional iconographic analysis to investigate how Taddeo manipulates planar surfaces and ruptures them with projecting or receding elements. Whittington argues that these varied pictorial modes serve to guide the viewer’s attention. Figures within these complex spaces “point, direct, and comment on the content” (36). Traditionally, Trecento painting has been seen as an imperfect precursor to the unified spatial illusion of the Quattrocento, but Whittington challenges this teleological view. Instead, he interprets spatial disruptions as deliberate strategies designed to communicate meaning, drawing the viewer into deeper interpretation (39). His comparative method is particularly effective: he introduces Taddeo Gaddi’s fresco in Santa Croce’s refectory and, to clarify its pictorial strategies, brings in smaller scale works such as Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi’s 1333 Annunciation and Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s 1344 Annunciation before returning to Gaddi’s mural. This comparative approach is consistently insightful, making complex arguments accessible.
Chapter 2 shifts to painted crosses (croci dipinte) and their role in shaping sculptural effects in Trecento figure painting. Whittington challenges the traditional emphasis on Giotto’s “revolution” in naturalistic figure representation, instead examining how sculptural effects were employed to enhance the corporeality of painted figures. He highlights the “intermediality” of painted crosses and painted wood sculptures, both of which shared materials and techniques and likely influenced each other (51). Through a thorough analysis of painted sculptures and the evolution of painted crosses from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, he suggests that artists sought to harness the devotional power of sculpted figures while exploiting the larger scale offered by painted crosses. A particularly engaging aspect of this chapter is Whittington’s ability to anticipate reader questions: just as one wonders how these observations relate to the book’s broader themes, he seamlessly integrates them, demonstrating how the projection of Christ’s body in painted crosses mirrors the strategies of monumental diagrammatic paintings (86). Throughout, his engaging writing style, sometimes resembling a teacher coaxing a student toward deeper engagement, makes for a compelling read.
Part II, “Painted Diagrams from Page to Wall” comprises four chapters that develop the book’s key concepts through different types of images. Chapter 3 investigates the transition of diagrammatic representations from manuscript pages to monumental murals, analyzing why diagrammatic formats were chosen over other pictorial approaches. Whittington’s expertise in manuscript studies is evident here, as he systematically examines how the transition from page to wall altered the function and reception of these diagrams. Chapter 4, “Painting the Cosmos in Pisa, Padua, and San Gimignano,” examines the use of scientific imagery in public settings, raising critical questions about how medieval viewers would have engaged with such images. A strength of Whittington’s approach is his meticulous attention to visual details, which allows him to uncover overlooked elements and reinterpret familiar works, such as Giusto de’ Menabuoi’s Creation fresco in the Padua Baptistery. He highlights how bodies and diagrammatic forms overlap surfaces, reading this as a communicative device designed to engage viewers in interpretative processes. His consistent consideration of medieval audience reception is particularly valuable.
Chapter 5 focuses on monumental depictions of Bonaventure’s Tree of Life, exploring how these diagrammatic works, often accompanied by extensive textual inscriptions, functioned as devotional and mnemonic tools. He provides a useful overview of tree imagery in theological and artistic traditions before analyzing painted and sculpted examples, including the magnificent Reliquary Tree from Lucignano (1350-1471). In this case, rather than depicting Christ’s body, the tree holds relics, offering an alternative means of encouraging devotion. As Whittington points out, Bonaventure was explicit about the pedagogical function of these images: they were meant to inspire emotion, deepen knowledge, and aid memory (163). Chapter 6 shifts to the iconography of the Triumphs of Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, situating these images within their original monastic contexts. He explores how diagrammatic and programmatic imagery was used to celebrate the intellectual and spiritual foundations of religious orders, shedding new light on lesser-known works such as the monumental Triumph of St. Augustine from Ferrara.
The final section, Part III, “Diagrammatic Painting: Narrative and Allegory,” consists of three chapters and a conclusion. Chapter 7 investigates the role of lines in Trecento painting, particularly those found in Stigmatizations and representations of divine light. These elements, often taken for granted, are analyzed as both narrative and diagrammatic devices that connect ideas and concepts. Although this chapter is relatively brief, it raises important questions about the semiotics of lines in medieval visual culture. Chapter 8 turns to Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s frescoes in Siena’s Palazzo Pubblico, a program extensively studied for its iconography but rarely considered in terms of its visual structure. Whittington reinterprets these frescoes as diagrammatic allegories that function similarly to sermons or theological treatises, guiding viewers through structured processes of interpretation. He suggests that elements such as the famed dancers were not merely decorative but served as communicative devices that encouraged reflection on governance and civic order. Given the ongoing conservation of these frescoes, further research in this vein would be particularly fruitful.
Chapter 9 returns to Santa Maria Novella in Florence, analyzing Nardo di Cione’s Hell scene in the Strozzi Chapel and Andrea di Bonaiuto’s Via Veritas in the Spanish Chapel. Whittington argues that Nardo’s Hell is not simply an illustration of Dante’s Inferno but functions like Dominican preaching, using exempla and compartmentalized spaces to guide interpretation. Similarly, Bonaiuto’s Via Veritas is not a straightforward narrative but a visual path to salvation, where allegorical figures and vignettes encourage meditative engagement.
In the conclusion, Whittington revisits overlooked painted programs, reinforcing his thesis that diagrammatic paintings served as authoritative vehicles of communication. His work encourages future scholarship to explore how these pictorial strategies interact with other modes of representation. By revealing what has been ignored, Whittington opens the field to new inquiries into the relationship between diagrammatic painting and medieval visual culture. This meticulously researched, erudite study is an invaluable contribution to Trecento art history.